CyberHappenings logo
☰
Home Browse Watchlists Experimental About

Track cybersecurity events as they unfold. Sourced timelines. Filter, sort, and browse. Fast, privacy‑respecting. No invasive ads, no tracking.

NHS Proactively Engages Suppliers to Enhance Cybersecurity Resilience

First reported
Last updated
1 unique sources, 2 articles

Summary

Hide ▲

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is advancing a multi-stakeholder cyber resilience strategy, with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) detailing an 18-month coordinated plan to strengthen defences across the sector. The plan includes piloting Active Cyber Defence 2.0 tools, enhancing software supply chain security via the Software Security Code of Practice, and integrating threat intelligence and vulnerability disclosure processes. The NHS continues to engage suppliers on cybersecurity controls while promoting technical measures such as passkeys, External Attack Surface Management, and sector-wide threat hunting workshops. This effort builds on the January 2026 NHS open letter to suppliers demanding improved cybersecurity standards and follows historic incidents like the 2017 WannaCry attack and the 2024 Synnovis ransomware incident, which disrupted operations and resulted in patient harm.

Timeline

  1. 23.01.2026 16:37 2 articles · 2mo ago

    NHS Issues Open Letter Demanding Improved Cybersecurity Standards from Suppliers

    On January 22, 2026, the NHS issued an open letter to suppliers demanding improved cybersecurity standards to combat persistent ransomware threats. The letter outlines the NHS's plans to engage directly with suppliers to discuss key cybersecurity controls and potential risks to patient care and operational continuity. The NHS also provided specific expectations for health and social care bodies to enhance their cybersecurity resilience. The NCSC subsequently outlined a coordinated 18-month plan to improve NHS cyber resilience, including Active Cyber Defence (ACD) 2.0 piloting, supply chain security enhancements via the Software Security Code of Practice, and integration of threat intelligence and vulnerability disclosure processes such as the NCSC Early Warning service and VRS. The plan also promotes technical measures like passkeys adoption, External Attack Surface Management, and sector-wide Threat Hunting Workshops.

    Show sources
    Open in new tab

Information Snippets

Similar Happenings

NCSC Pilot Project Identifies Barriers and Risks in Cyber Deception

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has shared findings from a pilot project under the Active Cyber Defence (ACD) 2.0 program, involving 121 organizations and 14 cyber-deception solution providers. The project aims to establish an evidence base for cyber deception use cases at a national scale. Key findings include challenges in generating outcome-based metrics, inconsistent terminology, a guidance gap, risks of improper tool configuration, and the strategic advantage of not advertising deception tools. The NCSC plans to deploy thousands of deception solutions across various environments to improve national resilience by imposing costs on adversaries.

Open in new tab

UK NCSC Reports Significant Increase in Nationally Significant Cyber Incidents

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) reported 204 nationally significant cyber incidents between September 2024 and August 2025, a 130% increase from the previous year. Recent high-profile attacks on Marks & Spencer, the Co-op Group, and Jaguar Land Rover highlighted the real-world impact of cyber threats. The NCSC emphasized the need for urgent action from business leaders to enhance cybersecurity defenses. The NCSC's 2025 Annual Review included a letter from the CEO of the Co-op Group, emphasizing the responsibility of senior leaders in protecting their businesses. The NCSC launched the Cyber Action Toolkit to help small organizations improve their cyber defenses. Additionally, the NCSC issued an alert to critical national infrastructure (CNI) providers about severe cyber threats targeting CNI, following coordinated cyber-attacks on Poland's energy infrastructure in December. NCSC CEO Richard Horne warned that SMEs are wrong to assume they won't be targeted by cyber-attacks and urged them to adopt Cyber Essentials certification to protect against common cybersecurity threats.

Open in new tab

NCSC Urges UK Organizations to Enhance Observability and Threat Hunting

The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has called for improved observability and threat hunting across UK organizations to bolster national cyber resilience. The NCSC's CTO, Ollie Whitehouse, highlighted significant variation in capabilities and emphasized the interdependence of observability and threat hunting. Effective threat hunting requires comprehensive visibility into all aspects of an organization's IT environment, including networks, devices, applications, and cloud services. The NCSC provided guidance on improving observability and threat hunting, including maximizing visibility, encouraging vendor compliance with monitoring guidelines, and moving beyond traditional indicators of compromise (IOCs) to focus on tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).

Open in new tab